Trinity
by aspecialkindofhuman
Summary: After a jealous fit of rage in which King Triton turns his daughter back into a mermaid, Ariel and Prince Eric flee to the neighboring Kingdom of Francia where Adam (the Beast) and Belle reside. But, unbeknownst to them, the Sea Witch Ursula is back with a vengeance and a powerful ally . . . Rated T for some language. Hope you like it!


New story! Yay! I thought of this one while browsing through some disney fanart and watching over a bunch of little kids at the pool. It's kind of weird and very different, but I worked hard on it and I hope you guys like it. Just to straighten some stuff out, this story starts only a couple weeks after Ariel becomes fully human and I decided to ignore the wedding of Ariel and Eric because A. She's too young (I think she's like eighteen, right?) and B. She's too much of a free spirit to get married right away. That was the one thing that always bugged me in the movie. So yeah.  
**ARIEL IS EIGHTEEN IN THIS FIC AND SHE AND PRINCE ERIC ARE NOT MARRIED YET**  
Also, it's a crossover with Beauty and the Beast (I'm on a bit of a Disney kick), but that'll come into play in the next chapter.  
I'll update FF and Black Blood either today or tomorrow and maybe throw in some Destiel one-shots (if you guys are lucky). As always, hope you like it and tell me what you think!

**DISCLAIMER**: Both _The Little Mermaid_ and _Beauty and the Beast_ belong to Disney, they're not mine. (this is the only time I'm putting this up so pay attention, okay?)

* * *

Prologue

"Take her out, men! Quickly, now! We don't have much time!"

"Watch that wave, Harley! She's right on your side!"

"Not much time . . . not much time . . ."

"HURRY! Before she's lost to us forever!"

Prince Eric ran back and forth on the deck of his favorite ship, the _Landlady_, scurrying along with his crew to make the vessel sea-worthy.

"Everything alright down here?" He asked, poking his head below the deck.

The crew nodded sharply, affixing the storage barrels to the floor with longs strips of rough. "Aye, aye, sir!"

He climbed the mast, swaying back and forth in the heavy ocean wind. "We good up here?"

"We've got it sir." The men threw netting over the opening of the crew's nest, keeping everything inside the round compartment from moving around. "We're good here."

"We haven't got much time," the young prince mumbled to himself, looking up at the roiling grey sky.

Dark clouds rolled overhead, shivering and shaking with the force of the wind. Lightning flashed every so often, eliciting a deep roll of thunder from the cloud bellies. Purple clouds and deep, dark rain sunk lower and lower in the sky, pressing down upon the hurrying men.

King Triton's wrath was at its peak.

"Sir?" Grimsby, the stiff companion of the young prince, stepped lightly onto the deck, slipping and sliding across its drenched wooden surface. "Sir!?"

"Grimsby?" Prince Eric dropped down from the crow's nest, clambering down the thick netting rung up along the main mast. He landed heavily in front of the old gentlemen, catching himself against a nearby crewmember with a loud grunt. "What's wrong?" he said as soon as he'd steadied himself. "Is she –?"

"She's worse, sir." Grimsby's pale face deepened in sadness. The lines around his mouth grew tight with his thin anxiety as worry spread through the folds across his face. "Poor girl looks deathly pale."

"I've got to see her." Eric's words were lost in a tangle of wind as it swooped down across the boat, tearing at the hair and clothes of the hard-working crew. "But I need to stay here and –"

"It's fine, sir!" A tall crewmen with dark close-cropped hair stood, arching his back against the rough wind. "We've got everything covered here!"

"We know our place, sir!" A blonde gentlemen stood, tossing a few unnecessary barrels overboard into the mouth of the rabid sea. "We'll finish up here then get the hell out of Dodge!"

"Yeah, Prince! Go check on your lovely lady! We can hold down the fort until then!"

"Go save Ariel!"

"SAVE ARIEL!"

The cries of his crewmen stayed with Prince Eric long after he launched himself off the boat and grabbed the reins of a nearby horse. Its sleek black coat was slick with rain and the poor beast tossed and turned its head as the storm worsened.

"I'll be back!" Prince Eric shouted, waving to the crew as he took off down the dark beaten path leading away from the dock. "I promise!"

That was the last time Eric ever saw the _Landlady. _King Triton took her away, dragging her into the bowels of the angry sea about the same time Prince Eric arrived at the castle.

He raced up the monstrous hill leading up to his sea-side castle, facing away from the roiling ocean. Lighting streaked down and lit the path before him, muddy and gross with the heavy rain. The horse tossed and turned its head, wild with fearful anxiety.

"Come on, girl." Eric patted her wet mane, lowering himself far over the horse's head. "Come on. Almost there."

The castle gate was hanging open, torn apart by the fierce wind of the storm. Two servants struggled wildly with the thick iron bars, but stopped when Prince Eric shot through the opening.

"GO HOME!" he shouted over his shoulder, aiming his words at the two anxious servants. "EVACUATE! GET EVERYONE OUT!"

The city, he knew, had already been cleared. He'd ridden through it on his way to the castle. It was in a sad, pitiful state; Barren and completely desolate. Empty streets drowning in rain. Empty houses open and bare to the elements. Empty lives thrown away because of a King's childish temper-tantrum.

"Ariel!" Prince Eric called striding through the hallway of his empty castle. His horse nickered behind, clicking through the front hall with his hooves shedding water on the stone.

Polished marble clicked beneath Eric's boots as he walked quickly through the empty hallways. The only sound other than his hollow breathing was the squish of water dripping off his soaked white shirt. A few lingering servants scurried around him, handing towels him to dry with and running for the door with heavy suitcases in tow.

"Get out!" Prince Eric shuffled them towards the door. "For God's sake, just leave! King Triton's going to tear this place down any minute!"

"But, zir!" One clever maid, a ginger like Ariel, stood by his side with her feet firmly planted. "I muzt attend to 'ou and the Princess."

"Oh, for crying out loud –!"

"I will get the horsez ready for our departure." The young girl bowed. Her red hair fell across her shoulder and her arms jutted out in sharp, defiant angles from her sides. Her voice fell back into the thick Jamaican accent she'd been born with, a remnant of her mother's pride in her Jamaican heritage. She turned away without a word, hurrying away before Prince Eric could protest.

"Damn fool," he breathed, touched by her bravery.

He continued on through the hall, breathing in the silence of the castle. Outside, the wind attacked the heavy stone while the waves crashed relentlessly against the castle's side. But those sounds were muffled and distance, far away but powerfully, frighteningly real.

"Ariel!" Eric reached the massive master bedroom he and his young fiancé shared.

Evidence of the ex-mermaid's painful change was scattered all over the room. A thick pile of heavy green scales lay around the foot of the bed. Ginger threads of hair, torn from the roots and ripped painfully out of her head, blew in the wind from the room's only open window, rolling across the floor in thick red balls. Small droplets of blood traced a path from a torn pile of clothes by the bed to the open bathroom door. Light and steam spilled out from the crack in the door, filling the room with a familiar salt water stench.

". . . Eric . . .?" Ariel breathed in a low gasp. Her voice barely made it to him through the sounds of the storm outside, but he was so attuned to her voice now that the heavy rain blasting against the walls didn't make much of a difference.

He kicked open the bathroom door and knelt beside the large claw-footed tub, staring at his beautiful red-haired princess.

Her skin was pale in the steaming water, but her cheeks were flushed with feverish warmth. Dark eyelids threaded with flickering, blue veins open and closed over eyes as blue as the Caribbean Sea. Ariel's red hair formed a glossy halo around her head, blood-red and shimmering with flakes of salt.

But the most dynamic change – and the most painful for both the Prince and his fiancé to come to terms with – was the sparkling green tail flicking in and out of the water beneath her hips.

"I'm sooooo _thirsty_," she gasped, opening her eyes to stare at Eric. Blood-red veins shot through her eyes and his face twisted in agony as she blinked twice at him before closing her eyes and slipping her face beneath the water's surface.

She breathed in the water in large, gulping gasps, spitting it back out before it circulated through her changing lungs. She lifted her hand from the water to reach for him, but her skin dried out on contact with the air and large flakes of salt dropped from her long, thin fingers. The pale stone beneath the tub was already coated with a thin layer of white.

"I'll get you some water, okay?" Eric grabbed her hand and dipped it back into the water, twining their fingers in the warm salty bath.

"Noooo." She opened her eyes beneath the water. Her lips formed the words and Eric read them slowly listening to her mumbled voice, beautiful even through the water. "Donn't leavveeee."

"I've changed the bath three time now, Ricky." A small girl crawled out of the corner by the tap, rocking back and forth on small blue heels. "I don't know what else to do."

"Flora." Eric reached out with his other hand and gently tugged the girl's blonde head beneath his arm. "I told you to leave with Scully."

"I'm sorry, Ricky." The yellow-blonde girl tucked her head into his armpit, crying harshly into his soaked white shirt. "I just didn't want to leave her. She's in so much pain . . ."

She hiccupped slightly and Eric sighed, hugging the little girl closer into his side. "It's alright. We'll get her out of here. She'll be fine once we get her away from the sea."

Flora sniffed, peeking up at Eric with glossy blue eyes. "Promise?" Her voice cracked towards the end, high with fear and sorrow.

Eric nodded, rubbing a hand through her yellow hair. "Promise."

"Prince Eric?" The servant girl from before stood in the entryway with her hands defiantly propped on her hips. "Everything iz ready. I 'tink we've got to go now."

Eric stood, peeking out the small square window set in the bathroom wall. On the water, his ship was burning. Bright red flames leaped up to mix with the lighting, adding dark clouds of rough smoke to the hurricane mass above the water. Wind tore at the flames, tugging them this way and that, but the ship stayed over the water, burning silently on the loud, angry sea.

"He took the bait," Prince Eric sighed in relief, turning back to his fiancé. "We can go now."

"Tow'el, sir." The servant held out a long dark rag for the prince.

"Ariel?" Eric leaned over his mermaid, slipping his arms into the water around her. "We've got to go now, okay?"

"Noooooo," she moaned, batting weakly at Eric's strong arms. "Wannntt tooo stayyyy."

"I'm sorry, love." Eric scooped her up and wrapped her up in the towel, ignoring her harsh, agonized cries.

The odd group sprinted from the master bedroom, squeaking loudly on the polished marble of the castle's floors. Behind them, the waves broke through the weak sand barrier, flooding the lower rooms of the castle. Wind and rain shattered the windows, tore bricks loose from the walls, and blew through all the hallways, snuffing out a few burning candles with loud, heavy breathes.

But louder than the storm outside were the fearful, panting breathes of the fleeing group.

And Ariel's screams were louder than their breathing.

It was the worst and best night of Eric's life.

Adrenaline soared through his veins as he hopped onto his horse, curling his slippery bride into his arms. She flailed within the towel's confines, slapping her tail against his legs. Her scales drew blood from his hard, calloused fingers, but he ignored the pain, slipping his arms around her. Beside him, the clever servant lifted Flora onto the horse in front of her, caging her in with the horse's reins.

They paced back and forth within the castle's entryway, listening the waves and the wind and the rain and the loud storm outside.

Eric turned to the ginger servant. "Ready?"

"Ready, sir."

Eric took off, bolting through the doorway with the servant girl on his heels. Flora screamed when the cold rain struck her skin and Ariel sighed in painful bliss. She squirmed in Eric's grasp, stretching her pale arms out towards the rain, but Eric tightened his arms around her, bending low over the horse's head.

"Come on!" He drove his heels into the horse's side, turning out of the castle gate and onto the cobblestone road out of the kingdom.

Above him the rain took shape, melding into the great shape of a watery fist. The clouds also changed forms, growing deeper and darker. They morphed into the angry face of the King of the Seas. Lightning became his triton and he lowered it over the fleeing pair, firing harsh bolts again and again at the horse's heels.

"GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!" The sky roared as the watery fist pounded the cobblestone beside Eric's horse.

"Daddy?" Ariel sat up in Eric's arms, peeking over his shoulder. The wind whipped her hair into Eric's face, but he pushed it aside in time to avoid another smash of the fist made of water. "Daddy!"

"YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF, OLD MAN!" Eric shouted savagely, pulling Ariel down into the safe confines of his grip. "YOU KNEW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WHEN YOU TURNED HER!"

"YOU SELFISH HUMAN!"

The wind growled and moaned as the sea rose up behind the horses, flooding the castle in one great wave. The face in the sky laughed as the sea roared up the cobblestone path, tearing at everything that was unfortunate enough to fall into its path. Grass, brick, trees, plants, houses, fences; everything was caught in its destructive, but beautiful power.

"GIVE!"

The wave started to envelop the hooves of Eric's horse.

"HER!"

Beside him, Flora screamed and the servant girl cried fierce, violent tears.

"BACK!"

The end came swifter than Eric had imagined. Mercy wasn't something he thought Triton was capable of, but, in the end, the old man put his youngest daughter above everything else. He closed his eyes as Ariel sang him to sleep, flickering in and out of her fishy human form.


End file.
